The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for production of a non-woven fabric, preferably for textile sheets.
It is known that non-woven fabrics can be produced mechanically and/or aerodynamically and/or hydrodynamically, with the fiber material being dispersed mechanically and/or aerodynamically into individual fibers, with a fiber nap or non-woven fabric being simultaneously formed, deposited, and transported over the entire working width. Most technical solutions disclose carding power units for the mechanical non-woven fabric formation over the entire working width. The processing of the fiber naps into non-woven fabric is accomplished by layering or paneling. In accordance with the preferred fiber direction of the fiber nap or non-woven fabric, the result can be longitudinal fleece, lateral fleece, cross fleece and irregular fleece (Boettcher, P. et al.: Vliesstoffe, VEB Fachbuchverlag Leipzig 1976).
It is furthermore known that a non-woven fabric can be mechanically produced by means of a meander-shaped fiber track, located perpendicular to the the transport direction of the non-woven fabric. According to DE-OS No. 1 926 951 the fiber track, and according to DE-OS No. 2 846 517 a fiber hank, are moved translatorily back and forth by an air stream over the respective working width, thus reaching the essentially parallel reaming position.
Poor mass uniformity over the width and length of the fleece, a lower degree of variability of the fiber orientation in the individual fiber layers of the fleece and across the fleece width, insufficient texture variability, as well as few pattern possibilities, are common disadvantages connected with these methods and apparatus. Even if the meander-shaped fleece formation from a fiber track and the loop-shaped fiber hank depot have the advantage of width variability, they also display the obvious disadvantages of periodic mass fluctuations depending on the fiber track or the fiber hank depot, with related bandiness, irregularities in the inversion or border areas, and low variability of the fiber orientation and the non-woven fabric texture.